Gaming The System - The Feminist Gaming Podcast

226 Gaming the System vs. The Anti-Woke Steam List – Part 1

• Gaming The System - The Feminist Gaming Podcast

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In this first half of our two-part deep dive, the Gaming the System crew tackles a bizarre and troubling corner of the gaming world: a Steam curator list designed to help players avoid so-called “woke” games. Yes, really.

Matt, Jem, and Alex dissect this extensive (and often baffling) database compiled by those who see diversity, empathy, and inclusion as threats to gaming. We explore the origins of the term "woke," how it's been weaponised by the political right, and how it's used here as a catch-all for anything remotely progressive, from LGBT+ representation to pro-environmental themes.

What does “woke” even mean anymore? Why are empathy and awareness now considered dangerous? And what can this curated list tell us about the broader culture war in games?

You’ll hear reflections on historical context, linguistic appropriation, and how control over language shapes the battlefield. We also look closely at the group's supposed “discussion rules” behind the list, and what those reveal about attempts to mask ideological extremism behind a facade of reasonableness.

From mocking the list’s contradictions to tracing its deeply political implications, we keep things sharp, critical, and (as always) intersectionally feminist.

Highlights:
Shifting definitions of “woke” and its appropriation across decades
Representation in games becomes a lightning rod for backlash
Forum rules can serve as a cloak for exclusionary ideology
Children of Men, the roots of the term “stay woke,” and more
DEI or DIE?

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Speaker:

Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Gaming the System, the podcast where three intersectional feminists examine gaming and games through a feminist lens. Today I am your host, Matt, and I'm joined by my friends Alex and Gem. Before we get started, if you want to support us, you can subscribe to our Patreon at patreon.com/gaming system for some exclusive content. Or you can send us a one-off donation via PayPal to our email address. We are gaming the system@gmail.com.

Matt:

I'm calling it, you can't play anything these days because we're looking at a rather fabulous resource that the, you could call them our foes, our opposition, the people who are against progressivism and diversity and equity and inclusion. Jem, you brought this to our attention before Christmas, the woke content detector. This is a page on Steam. A curator page will come into soon what a curator page is, and the person in charge of it and the team around them and the followers of that page have created a massive database of over a thousand games with the goal of going through them and detecting woke content and then writing down what makes these games unsuitable and unadvisable and what makes them wrong and nasty. And woke. Woke is the such a stupid little word to describe what we're talking about as well. But that's what we're gonna have to be contending with and saying a lot this episode. So to start off with, we need to decide what we think woke means. How do we define woke? How do you define woke?

Alex:

I believe it, originated, from American culture. I'm not sure exactly when, but it was like in the 19 hundreds, to define being aware of the barriers, of racism and social injustice. And then that expanded to include gender, and other marginalized groups. Usually it's defined as. Race, gender, religion, with no mention of disability whatsoever because disability is hardly ever included within the conversation, even though it is the largest marginalized group in the world. but that's how it started. And then it was mocked by the political right. and became a pejorative term for anything left. politically right now it's really picking up steam and the definition has expanded to include pretty much anything that, right wing people feel threatened their way of being and of living essentially. It's quite interesting to think about in terms of. The evolution of the term and the way that language evolves and is appropriated by different groups and how sometimes terms that were once derogatory have been taken, and reclaimed by certain groups when you think about different words like the word queer, for example, or, the term crip to describe disabled people rather than cripple. those are examples of it going in the opposite way where a derogatory term has become a term of empowerment, whereas now I think woke being a term of empowerment has come back down to being a derogatory term used by those who feel it threatened their way of life essentially.

Jem:

As you said, it kicked off back in the thirties and forties. Apparently it was in, a song by, led belly called Scotsboro Boys. and the lyrics go, I advise everybody to be a little careful when they go along through there. Stay woke, keep their eyes open. It's been around for ages and resurfaced in the sixties and the seventies, and then it broadened out to mean, racial justice and civil rights and black consciousness. and then in the early two thousands and 2010s, it became, utilized again. it was brought back in by the, black Lives Matter movement. And, they used it in that, like they had that hashtags hashtag stay woke, and that was more broad as well, bringing in sort of climate justice and sexuality and all of the things that we generally tend to put under the DEI, Headline. and then, yeah, then became a slur and was, hijacked, I guess by the right.

Alex:

Hmm.

Jem:

I think we've talked about it before on the podcast, and I think it is one of these words that means a lot and nothing in one go, but I do, like the concept of it. I like this idea that you are enlightened, that you are awoken to these issues, because I think that a lot of the problems that we have are down to lack of education and lack of understanding around. What it means to be mindful and considerate and empathic, about people and their life experiences. I like the concept, but it has obviously been horribly weaponized by the right, and it has become a very divisive word. And it's the same as politically correct. when we used to always talk about politically correct. When I was growing up, everything was, oh, it's too politically correct.

Alex:

That's really fallen off

Jem:

Yeah, no one says that anymore, but politically correct is like, you know, it's correct. It's like, this is something that we think is a good thing and suddenly it's like, no, it's bad. and being awake. I mean, we are not going to get into the whole, in cell world. But isn't that whole thing about taking these pills to wake you up to the reality of life? And so, you know, being woke, whichever side of the, argument you are on is obviously like a positive thing. And yet here we are with this very, Co complex word. People do throw it around as an insult, and I think that as is often the case, the left tend to go, oh, okay, well we'll just leave that word and move on. The amount of conversations I've had with people about whether we should just stop using the word feminism, and it just feels like we can't just keep giving up these words just because

Alex:

Hmm.

Jem:

right wing it. the hill that we want problem with it. But on the other hand, is to die on? I dunno.

Matt:

describing it as it means nothing and everything. It's not a defined thing, it's just a, big swing covering whatever you want it to mean. it's exactly the same as political correctness, just with A 21st century name that reflects the dumbing down and deterioration of the English language, which I'm sure I could talk to Chris for hours about political correctness Sounds, Orwellian like something from communism where you're going, I think it might actually be from Orwell. there's the truth and then there's the politically correct truth. The one that the government and the party decides what the truth is. This, what makes this group a fascinating perfect in point to what this movement is and that led us to have this conversation We get on, because we have shared interests and shared values, so we enjoy being in each other's company and being in the company of people who are like us or that we like, We don't interact with people who think like this and believe this because we won't get on, because their values are antithetical to us. And so we choose not to spend any time with them, and that means that we don't know what's going on inside their tent. And it's just a, a nasty place to think. I don't want to spend any time, like you're saying, with the incel movement. I don't want to go anywhere near that. I don't wanna spend as my, any time, any more time than I need to thinking about it. But this is a. A little community that exists in digital form. it's part of steam and it has rules and guidelines, which I think blows my mind that you have, it's like conspiracy theorists that have groups and they meet up for little conferences and they have to fly there or take trains there, and then they still have to, someone has to bring the biscuits, there still has to be toilets. It's not all the stuff that if you were writing a novel about it, you wouldn't include So as we go through, I'm gonna read out bits and bobs that are on this page. The first off, start with the discussion rules. They have discussion rules Their foundation is being, I should be able to say whatever I want whenever I want and I don't want to be censored. And to the, we'll go onto the list of what they count as woke in a moment, but bear in mind, this is the framework that they're setting up. This is the discussion rules written by the guy who created the page and jump in at any point. We encourage civil, respectful discourse only. We cannot give Steam or Valve any reason to set us down due to out of control, MEMS or trolls. No ad ho minimum attacks will be tolerated. I'm assuming that means criticizing someone else on the page. if people think their assertions are truly of merit, they should not have to resort to fallacious arguments and vitriolic attacks, and this group has a zero tolerance policy. If you violate these rules or steams discussion rules, you'll be giving a warning and your post will be deleted.

Alex:

That's interesting. It's an interesting thing being a former forum moderator, who makes the rules and you know who, what do they consider a breach of those rules? Obviously this group is, is aligned politically one way. So I guess anything that is contrary to that would automatically put yourself in like hot water, in the eyes of the moderators if you are and what that group is there for. Then you're gonna be causing trouble and tearing the pot, aren't you? Just by virtue of having differing views. it is a little odd have to admit, because, in most forums you have to try and be even handed and, and support both sides. And, the time when you take action is when. A personal attacks occur. And the fun thing was trying to define what a personal attack was and some people thought it was one thing and clearly it's not. but they'll argue that it is. and how do you even begin to place that when people will have their own ideas about what's breaking the rules, separate to the moderators, you know? yeah, I'm not really sure how, how that would work. I mean, what do they even, there must be barely any disagreements ever unless people who are on the left go in and try to disrupt them, I suppose. Otherwise they'd all just be having very gentle discussions about what is or isn't, where it can be happy in their little bubble. I dunno.

Jem:

I think, the Guardian had one of the most, comprehensive sets of community guidelines for their, their

Alex:

Hmm.

Jem:

posts and their moderation. And many people would use that as, as a blueprint for forums because it did detail all of these aspects that you're talking about, Alex, and go into them because, because as you say, different people have different ideas on, on what these things mean. I, what struck me when I read that, those instructions, Matt, was that it, it's an effort, which is, I think we're seeing across the board from the right to legitimize their position. They're working very hard to come across as very reasonable people who simply have. A position and it's something that is worth debating with them and discussing with them because they're reasonable.

Alex:

Yeah.

Jem:

Yeah. So that was, that was really what I was struck by this, that they're working very hard to be able to undermine what they believe to be their opposition whilst trying to maintain a position of legitimacy and reasonable behavior, which is, yeah, you could probably speak to a lot of domestic abuse experts about the psychology behind that kind of behavior.

Matt:

That's such a good point of the legitimacy and the reasonableness to it and the, have you watched SAS Rogue Heroes? It's fabulous.

Alex:

I think I know where you're going.

Matt:

There are a lot of games making slaughtering Nazis and fascists, lads, lads, lads, lads, behavior, and then I'm reading, some horrible books about the Nazis and Japanese and World War ii and the lesson that human beings are literally capable of anything. There's, there is no, there's always a possibility of utter madness, horrors committed by humans, and it's not done in an animalistic way. It's done in a very reasonable and methodical way of say, well, we want to do this horrifying thing. When we talk about it, we're gonna talk about how we're gonna do it, the logistics of it.'cause these horrifying things don't happen with no, you need to be organized to do these horrifying things. it really is just unsettling when looking inside a community like this. You go, it seems like a reasonable place. You could think that maybe these people could be reasoned with. But then you look outside of this and now we're just gonna look at a list of the things that they're against. And you think about the human cost of these positions that they. Want to enforce.'cause what's happening in America at the moment is they're getting all their, all their dreams are coming true with Trump instituting literally everything on this list. And I've been thinking that how extreme stream could things get before people in these kinds of groups would go, oh, I didn't want it to go that far, because we'll come onto it a bit later. What they actually want to happen, what they think the answer to wokism And they don't just want to complain about it because, right. Well, start off with this list of how they define woke. And so the first one is pro LGBT. stuff they want to go back to a time where there are no queer people seen anywhere. That's what they want. Their ideal game is one with no LGBT people in it. And then this is useful'cause then we can, we can determine that this is what they want to happen in real life, which is where the problem comes in because they have a problem with it in their games, which means they have a problem with it in the real world. Yeah, just quite depressing. But fortunately we are winning in terms of the culture war stuff.

Jem:

I had a look at that list, the basic terminology and what I was really struck by was how there's a list of pro, and Then it goes onto anti And what I found really intriguing was the fact that. in this list. Pro is all the sort of the negative stuff. All the stuff that woke groups don't like is the stuff that they view woke groups as working against. So they talk about games being woke if they have pro-abortion messaging. They don't talk about pro-life or pro-choice because that would really mess up this whole thing. so whilst they're appearing to be very reasonable and mature in their approach to this and trying to put this across in a legitimate and reasoned way, they are extremely biased, right from the offset, they hit the ground running covered in, in, in a mess of bias and, and you can't even argue. It's unconscious. So it's so clearly there,

Alex:

the other bits that confused me from the list that I had to be like, well, what does that mean? anti-human messaging. Anyone have any thoughts on that one? and then also, anti-family messaging. I guess that depends on their definition of what family is. those are the main ones that really stuck out as like, well, what does that mean?

Matt:

It feels, again, the reason this list, spoke to me so impactfully when I first saw it, is this is, it's like we've found, we've cracked the enigma code and we've just got a list through. this is what the enemy, this is the thought structure and strategy behind the enemy. So this is everything on this list is what we now can confirm what they mean when they say woke. We're going, right? We know our enemy now. But it becomes, the scale of the problem grows when you realize that all of these positions are the ones that right wing media have chosen. They haven't come up with these things themselves. Right? Wing media comes up with these things, these culture war issues, and then tells these people what to think because if you've ever watched, it's impossible to completely avoid right wing news stuff. They have the exact same buzzwords constantly. They say the same couple of things over and over again, saying the word woke constantly. in the UK there's this. Racist conspiracy theorists, theory of Muslim grooming gangs who just run pedophile rings. And then, so we know that all of this stuff is being, they're parroting it from these right wing sources and then trying to rationalize it themselves in these groups like this. But then when we go into the thinking of it means it means everything and it means nothing. That's where the biggest danger is, because like you say, gem, a lot of these things are completely subjective and, and are going right. I like this. I don't like that If someone thinks, oh, I don't like cozy games, I found out, but I can explain why that is and if someone tried to talk me around to it, I might go, ah, maybe I'll try that one. I'll try this one, or whatever. I can talk about it. If, no matter what these things are, if the right wing media that they follow completely 180 on any of them, or changed the definitions of any of them, these people would go, oh yeah, I believe that now. And that's the most dangerous thing because they say they're, they're anti pedophilia. When Donald Trump went to Epstein's Island so many times, there are so many examples of him going and being around very young women and him being bad, bad stuff. And then Epstein, you'd think, go Epstein. Literally every famous person in America. Has a photo with Epstein and went to his island. And you go, right, if you go, if you go to someone, right? Do you like pedophilia? Are you pro pedophilia? And then you'd go, no, of course I'm not. And then you go, okay, so what should we do about it? What do you think the problem is? And I'll say, oh, the left wing, like, grooming gangs. And you go, we'll, we'll put a pit in that. What else about pedophilia? And then they just, it just falls apart. But then you can't, you can't talk them out of it. And that's, that's why it feels such a dangerous thing to me in that they, they'll, they'll believe what they're told to believe, but it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be objectively true. It can just be a buzzword. That means they'll, they can do whatever they want. I will,

Alex:

Yeah, and I thought the bit round off the list was all like really breezy sounding. It had like, like you say, like they're trying to present this reasonable facade. if you disagree with our definition of work content or you disagree with our association of that term with one of the above listed themes, feel free to join and let us know, which, okay, sure. What happens after I let you know. It's very, very disconcerting.

Matt:

it's such a fascinating list of things, and I'll do them, I'll give them the favor, if this takes off, then I can't believe I'm the first person to come up with an idea. So, you guys know what, DEI stands for?

Alex:

Diversity,

Matt:

say the amount of times that I've read DEI in preparation for this just makes me feel sick because every time I think of it, why wouldn't you? If you think that this is the death of society, wokes, the death of society, why wouldn't you call it diversity, inclusion and equality? You'd have DIE, wouldn't you? And I just, that's just, that's, that frustrates me unbelievably. I can't believe how much it irritates me every time I say, why haven't you just done die? Why wouldn't you do that? If this is, if you think this is the death nail of society, so fuck's sake,

Alex:

they're not creative enough.

Matt:

So I dunno whether I'd be pleased or displeased if that all of a sudden started happening. What's more interesting stuff on this is there's,'cause we think culture war, we think of there's gay people, there's women, there's disabled people and all that stuff. That's what I would associate with, with culture war stuff and wokes. But then they bring in political stuff and capitalist stuff. And you think, oh, that's the messaging we've received from our media because no one knows anything about communism. Really? No one cares about communism really? Communism hasn't worked. It's never worked. No one's serious with any, anyone with anywhere near any backing. It wants communism, so it just doesn't matter. But that's what they've been told.'cause it goes China, communist Russia, communist bad, and socialism. These are the things that the right wing media actually cares about because socialism threatens their money and climate change threatens their money'cause they're the ones making money from it. the cognitive dissonance of. They would absolutely die on the hill of the, define the definitions of these things. But then the opposite of them can be true and they would die for that as well. Like immigration stuff. Immigration, they, so in America, who do you think employs all the, illegal immigrants? The wealthy people do it because they haven't got any workers' rights. You can pay them less.

Alex:

This is so many parallels with the book I'm, listening to at the moment, children of Men, which is about society, how society breaks down essentially when the human race can't have children anymore. And, it's all about the uk and they have what they call JEAs, that basically immigrants from other countries that come in and do all the crappy jobs that no one wants anyone else to do, like cleaning and doing the bends and keeping the streets tidy and things like that. And the activist groups that are working against the powers that be in the UK were all advocating for rights of the sad journals. And it had so many parallels with, the way that some people in this country view immigrants and how other people are fighting for the rights of immigrants and things. So, and it's very, very prescient. it was written in the, I think in the 1990s, But it's still so relevant to right now. It's fairly relevant, a lot of it. so I recommend reading it or listening to it, if you prefer audiobooks. it just really strikes me how similar a lot of It is

Jem:

The film's worth watching.

Alex:

It's fascinating to think about, you know, the way that the author was so spot on with everything. And it's still happening now.

Jem:

Yeah. Well, they did engage with experts in the writing of it, I think. So. You know, it's

Alex:

Hmm.

Jem:

proper research.

Alex:

Yeah.